Britain and Spain refuse to attend conference Israel wants to hold in Jerusalem

Britain and Spain have refused to attend the biannual tourism conference of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on October 20-22, because it will be held in Jerusalem, Israel’s tourism minister, has said.

Most countries do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“OECD officials demanded that we not bring the delegates to East Jerusalem, or that we move the conference to Tel Aviv,” Stas Misezhnikov said. “If we agreed to that, they promised to send many delegates. We held a meeting with the Foreign Ministry and decided to reject the Tel Aviv idea,” he said, quoted by Israeli daily Haaretz.

Misezhnikov charged that the Palestinians urged OECD members to stay away from Jerusalem.

“The Palestinians are continuing to cause us damage,” he said. “We exerted intensive pressure via the ambassadors and decided to hold the conference despite certain countries’ decision not to send delegates, including England and Spain.”

Misezhnikov said that he “strongly denounced the states that surrendered to threats.”

This is only the second time in its history that the conference, which this year deals with sustainable tourism, is held outside Paris.